1980 raid on Theresa Brown’s brothel

As Eva Ruth discusses on her own blog, I went in search of the clip file on Theresa Brown only to discover that it had been checked out to a reporter in 2007 and never returned — and that reporter hasn’t been on staff in years either. Thankfully, this topic is one of those discussed elsewhere and we had enough detail to go to the microfilm, but it would have been nice to have it all there waiting for us in one place.

The raid on the brothel that started it all took place on Oct. 2, 1980, and was reported in the next day’s Express:

“Two 23-year-old Houston women” were arrested on prostitution charges and, more importantly, the so-called “trick book” containing “hundreds of names of clients, reportedly including a number of prominent names well known in the city and the state,” was confiscated. Police said “the operation netted at least $1,000 per day.”

Theresa Brown herself isn’t mentioned until a story on Oct. 5 named her as the owner of the house. She was interviewed by phone from “a hiding place outside the county.” In that same story, the Republican nominee for sheriff said the opposition had been planting lies that he was listed in the book. The cops were saying the list had “the names of some 3,000 persons […who…] were either customers or persons who referred people to the brothel.” An Express-News informant doubted there were that many names on it and said many were old.

The client list was written on “highly flammable flash paper and police said it was not coincidental the front of the ledger bore a ‘No Smoking’ warning.” Later reports said the list had been reproduced — on a special duplicating machine, due to the flammable paper — for the district attorney’s office and the FBI. At that point, the FBI was keeping their copy in the safe.